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Tuesday’s election day ad is for Budweiser, from 1952. But the stubborn postures and acrimonious stares on the two political mascots are as recognizable today as they apparently were sixty years ago. Even though politics seem more divisive today than ever before, maybe there were always this bad? I don’t know if Budweiser has the power to get us all together, but perhaps craft beer?

The same artwork was also used in another ad, with a different headline, “Keep Cool.” Given that the two political mascots are sitting on a block of ice, it seems likely that this may have actually been the earlier or original ad.

I know I’m beating a dead horse — or is that donkey and elephant? — today, but as it’s election day and I’m of the opinion that most people don’t take politics seriously enough, it can’t be helped. Poking around today, when I should have been working, I found an interesting President’s Day piece from earlier this year on Politico. Entitled For Presidents, Beer is Great Leveler, it was written by Joe McClain, president of The Beer Institute. I wrote a similar article earlier this year, too, All the President’s Beer.

McClain and I certainly agree on beers’ importance to presidential politics. “Beer has come to symbolize the unique connection between presidents and the people they serve. Presidents are charged with bridging divides and finding common ground with citizens from all ideologies and backgrounds. There’s no common denominator like beer.” After dropping Eisenhower’s most famous beer quote, he continues. “Just as Ike used beer as a measure of the average American voter, voters used beer to measure presidential candidates.” But I absolutely love his conclusion.

Beer is a unifier and equalizer. It transcends party and ideology, geography and class, and is enjoyed by young and old, male and female, Democrat and Republican. It leads to common ground in politics and life. When so much in the world pulls us apart, beer has been there to bring us together.